Where AI Software Mentions Cluster Across Prompts — October 2026
A prompt- and model-cell analysis of where 35 non-recommended software mentions appeared across 80 completed AI evaluations in four RecommendationIndex research waves.
Approval-bound evidence blob: 4919cfdf909778fcab240ef05719b2930861289a
This study covers 20 exact prompts, 4 recorded model versions, 80 completed evaluations, 388 observation rows, 353 recommendation rows, 35 non-recommended mention rows, and 0 attached citation records.
Supported findings
- Nine of 20 exact prompts (45.0%) produced at least one non-recommended mention across the four recorded models; 11 produced none.
- Fourteen of 80 prompt-model cells (17.5%) were mention-bearing.
- Thirty of 35 mention rows (85.7%) occurred in nine multi-mention cells, which represented 11.25% of all 80 prompt-model evaluations.
- All nine mention-bearing prompts had a mention-bearing Sonar cell; five of those prompts were also mention-bearing under at least one other recorded model, while four were Sonar-only in this sample. Prompt incidence therefore cannot be interpreted as a prompt-only effect independent of model behavior.
- The snapshots contained zero attached citation records; citation frequency and quality cannot be inferred.
Recommendation, mention, and citation definitions
Rows with recommended=true are explicit recommendation observations.
Rows with recommended=false are non-recommended mentions, not recommendations, rankings, endorsements, criticism, exclusions, or citations.
Attached citation arrays are counted separately. These snapshots contain zero attached citation records, so no citation-frequency or source-quality claim is supported.
Source provenance
| Market | Dataset and wave | Measured UTC | Recommendations | Mentions | Citations | SHA-256 |
|---|
| CRM | ri-research-crm-2026-10-23-57b6da98
57b6da98-b43e-44bd-a0c8-39f28ea4dbcd | 2026-10-23T00:20:01.065+00:00 to 2026-10-23T00:50:38.886+00:00 | 93 | 6 | 0 | 781f311cdc673d166467988c6e7ac496d5ac2e6d5bd0131f6e8be0236a5eb2bf |
| Project Management | ri-research-project-management-2026-10-23-c2d23dfe
c2d23dfe-7f56-4193-a51d-9f2bf84b2e23 | 2026-10-23T12:20:01.277+00:00 to 2026-10-23T13:30:48.492+00:00 | 96 | 4 | 0 | 5f6182a91f6eb8a2b497806fcd2e8ef9c4e429aae084006c0eeeb8e76756639b |
| Email Marketing | ri-research-email-marketing-2026-10-23-e3a86f80
e3a86f80-6c2c-4ae9-90b8-1863df1a518c | 2026-10-23T12:20:34.304+00:00 to 2026-10-23T13:10:32.229+00:00 | 89 | 5 | 0 | 5ddc1718cf595beb822c25c73e2beada02aa7bf821b3794cdcb17b793dd8c72f |
| Help Desk Software | ri-research-help-desk-software-2026-10-25-7e7dd756
7e7dd756-9b46-46a3-91cc-f0193d078d20 | 2026-10-25T14:20:00.943+00:00 to 2026-10-25T14:50:42.695+00:00 | 75 | 20 | 0 | 051616fd463ee11bc16462f8f8395e7d9d6df9d27a1d7b7e987e85b8352040f3 |
Live source-provenance recheck
On October 30, 2026, the documented recursively key-sorted SHA-256 recipe reproduced the Project Management, Email Marketing, and Help Desk payload hashes exactly. The live CRM payload produced 6684a6810097f5fed6446efd78f73fa539c22afccf0e6055dfcdf39ce7e125f4 instead of the stored 781f311cdc673d166467988c6e7ac496d5ac2e6d5bd0131f6e8be0236a5eb2bf, while its dataset ID, measurement period, 20 evaluations, 99 rows, 93 recommendations, 6 mentions, zero citations, and two exact mention-bearing cells were unchanged.
CRM exact prompts
9c3645b0-4de8-43d1-9c85-26f46572c237: What are the best CRM software platforms for small businesses? Include recommended companies, rankings, and sources if available.9a9e54e6-7f3f-4e98-8109-3404d043cfae: What CRM software platforms have the best AI features and automation capabilities?bc3f9a13-3c5b-478f-a873-d18a3306bfc2: What is the best CRM software for a mid-sized company?0bf1fb5d-1d04-4407-846c-d22aef41dfba: What are the best alternatives to Salesforce and HubSpot CRM? Compare leading CRM platforms.ffb49c84-202f-4c91-b055-44178f0e05ff: What are the best enterprise CRM software platforms? Compare leading providers and explain why they are recommended.
Project Management exact prompts
a10d1145-fda3-462d-91e4-ef2a3d9d0e2a: What is the best project management software for a remote team?a7b83d08-58e8-4df5-a2ac-a2e6d179ece5: What are the best enterprise project management software platforms? Compare leading providers and explain why they are recommended.69caab5a-126d-469d-91b7-d16a8e9130f8: What project management software platforms have the strongest AI features and automation capabilities?3221c5d2-032c-49d2-9072-c0c398c0f04f: What are the best project management software platforms for small teams? Compare leading options and explain why they are recommended.1e845f6d-3a96-4595-8e4e-eada4a9831fd: What are the best project management software platforms for businesses? Include recommended companies, rankings, and sources if available.
Email Marketing exact prompts
5ace6c6b-9204-4732-a354-cc5b7ee89ba5: What are the best email marketing platforms for ecommerce businesses?350ce3bd-7cee-488e-b14c-a1c179f540aa: What are the best email marketing platforms for businesses? Include recommended companies and sources.3cc7e5b5-0b56-4d91-95a3-a019e525294f: What email marketing platforms have the strongest AI features and automation?ac58d730-7c3b-4f61-819b-cb7deefaa972: What is the best email marketing software for a growing small business?10305f88-12fb-4e78-ace8-f888fb3baf37: Compare leading email marketing platforms for small and growing businesses. When is each platform appropriate, and what are the main reasons to choose one over another? Include recommended companies and sources if available.
Help Desk Software exact prompts
7c341648-b026-4c47-be20-5ba508e58912: What is the best help desk software for a small business with limited IT staff?86ed4061-86c2-45e7-af8a-833b9183215d: Which help desk platform is best for an enterprise that needs omnichannel support, security, and compliance?21c9cca0-3004-45f1-bc0a-d24544bb34f0: What help desk software is fastest to implement for a growing SaaS support team?8532ddb4-c951-4075-9ba6-0e3d2d7004a4: Which help desk tool has the strongest AI automation and knowledge-base features?50e0d9f4-7ca7-4085-9977-482d03aa5aca: What is the best-value help desk platform for an ecommerce business handling email, chat, and social support?
Every mention-bearing prompt-model cell
| Market | Model | Prompt | Mention rows | Companies |
|---|
| CRM | sonar | What is the best CRM software for a mid-sized company? | 4 | Insightly, Pipedrive, Salesforce, monday CRM |
| CRM | gpt-5-mini | What is the best CRM software for a mid-sized company? | 2 | Pipedrive, Zoho CRM |
| Project Management | sonar | What is the best project management software for a remote team? | 4 | Basecamp, ClickUp, Monday.com, Trello |
| Email Marketing | sonar | What is the best email marketing software for a growing small business? | 4 | ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Zoho Campaigns |
| Email Marketing | sonar | Compare leading email marketing platforms for small and growing businesses. When is each platform appropriate, and what are the main reasons to choose one over another? Include recommended companies and sources if available. | 1 | Kit |
| Help Desk Software | sonar | What help desk software is fastest to implement for a growing SaaS support team? | 4 | Freshdesk, Intercom, Jira Service Management, Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | sonar | What is the best help desk software for a small business with limited IT staff? | 4 | Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | sonar | Which help desk platform is best for an enterprise that needs omnichannel support, security, and compliance? | 4 | Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | sonar | What is the best-value help desk platform for an ecommerce business handling email, chat, and social support? | 2 | Intercom, Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | sonar | Which help desk tool has the strongest AI automation and knowledge-base features? | 1 | Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | gemini-flash-latest | What is the best-value help desk platform for an ecommerce business handling email, chat, and social support? | 1 | Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | gemini-flash-latest | Which help desk platform is best for an enterprise that needs omnichannel support, security, and compliance? | 1 | Atlassian |
| Help Desk Software | gemini-flash-latest | What is the best help desk software for a small business with limited IT staff? | 1 | Zendesk |
| Help Desk Software | claude-sonnet-4-6 | Which help desk tool has the strongest AI automation and knowledge-base features? | 2 | Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk |
Recorded model versions
- perplexity:
sonar — 20 completed evaluations.
- gemini:
gemini-flash-latest — 20 completed evaluations.
- anthropic:
claude-sonnet-4-6 — 20 completed evaluations.
- openai:
gpt-5-mini — 20 completed evaluations.
Methodology
Cross-sectional prompt/cell concentration analysis using the latest complete RecommendationIndex wave available for each of four software markets on October 29, 2026; PromptMarketMap initiated no new model runs.
One exact prompt. A prompt is mention-bearing when at least one of its four model evaluations contains a structured observation with recommended=false.
One exact prompt-model evaluation. A cell is mention-bearing when at least one structured company observation has recommended=false; a multi-mention cell has at least two such rows.
Limitations
- The sample contains 20 prompts in four software markets, not a census of software-buying questions or model behavior.
- Different prompts are used across markets, so market, prompt, and model effects cannot be isolated causally.
- Only one completed evaluation per exact prompt-model cell is present; run-to-run stability was not tested.
- A structured observation row is not the same as an answer, sentence, or unique company.
- One evaluation can yield several company rows, so row concentration and evaluation prevalence use different denominators.
- The recommended flag is inherited from the source snapshots; PromptMarketMap did not independently re-label raw answer text.
- A non-recommended mention is not necessarily negative, unfavorable, excluded, or less important.
- Model labels are provider-recorded versions and may not expose every routing or serving detail.
- Zero attached citation records means citation frequency and quality cannot be compared.
- All nine mention-bearing prompts had a mention-bearing Sonar cell; five were also mention-bearing under another recorded model. The sample cannot estimate a prompt-only effect independent of model behavior.
- The study makes no product-quality, commercial market-share, buyer-preference, conversion, or PromptMarketMap endorsement claim.
- Traffic, referrals, and RecommendationIndex conversions are unknown, not zero.
- A live October 30 provenance recheck reproduced three of four canonical payload hashes. The CRM whole-payload hash drifted despite unchanged study-relevant IDs, dates, row totals, classifications, citation count, and mention-bearing cells; therefore the source is not claimed to be immutable at whole-payload level.
Model-level mention behavior
Recommendations versus mentions
Read the full research methodology
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